The Art of Cooking

I've been experimenting in the kitchen as I do from time to time. Every now and then a person gets tired of the same dishes over and over. I like the routine because if I ever get sick I know exactly what I ate on which day. Of course the artist in me wants a little change and I get creative. Earlier in the week I bought some mushrooms and I put them in the fridge since I already had food prepared and as I mentioned I have a routine of things that I eat on certain days. Anyway, I didn't want the mushrooms to go bad so I decided to cook them all at one time. I made a pizza with mushrooms,tomatoes,pepperoni,olives,and three types of packaged cheese.
I put this on a 10" tortilla and it comes out great everytime.

With the remaining mushrooms I sauteed them in a large pan with onions, green pepers and jalepeno peppers. Then I tossed in the diced tomatoes and chopped some green olives. After it cooled down, I put it in the fridge to have another day. I decided to put the mixture over rice and topped with a piece of Talapia.

Today I'll put it over pasta with some sort of meat. The options are endless. Its a great idea for people who really don't like to cook, but don't have a problem with leftovers. You just have to decide what works best for you. If you have a big family then there may not be any leftovers.

Thanks for stopping by; keep an open mind.

The art of cooking

There is an art to almost everything. When we think of art we think of paintings or photographs. We think of those ceramic vases or plates some of you might hang on your wall. Rarely do we think of art as a formula, but that’s exactly the way Da
Vinci saw it and Michelangelo. When you think things through and see it from all angles then you can create something beautiful. You can figure out the solutions to all of life’s problems. I was thinking about making an apple pie, but I didn’t feel like rolling out dough and I didn’t want to go to the store to get one of those store bought pie crusts. I also didn’t have any cookies to create a quick crust. What I decided to do was take a tortilla and line the pie plate. I then took a second tortilla and cut it in strips to create a lattice top. I scooped in the apple filling and placed my strips on top and then put it in the oven for 35 minutes. It smelled great and when I pulled it out it looked great. Today I will do a taste test.

Another dish that I prepared since it was so hot I decided to do something that would cool off the body. I boiled a dozen shrimp, made some rotini pasta and steamed some veggies. I let everything cool and placed it in the fridge until I was ready to eat. I placed the shrimp I a circle in the bottom of the plate. I then put in the veggies followed by the rotini. Then I poured ranch dressing on top. Just enough to coat it and then mixed it in. You can actually use any of your favorite salad dressings. It’s a great summer dish and it doesn’t take a lot of time.

http://www.dlonzo-OpenYourMind.blogspot.com

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=58144381
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=54325957
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=54365247

The day after

There was a lot to be thankful for yesterday and I shared it with some special people. I decided to stay home and enjoy my alone time cooking for myself. I tried a few things I hadn’t done in a long time and a few new takes on familiar dishes. I made potato salad using canned potatoes. The dish came out okay, and its less time consuming, but one of the joys of cooking is the boiling of the potatoes, touching the hot skin as you try to peel the potatoes before they get too cold. The other thing I hadn’t done in a while was to make corn bread. I was never a big cornbread eater, but on occasion… I made it in a larger pan than what the box called for which made the batter thin out. This made it only rise a little and when I cut it into square it looked like little cookies. It as quite tasty if I must say so myself.
The gumbo was the highlight of the day. I’ve now learned to master this both from scratch and using the box. I’m good at doctoring things up and making them my own with added touches. I always found the box gumbo to be too thick so I add more water and I add lots of shrimp and sausage. My mother used to make a file gumbo which you don’t find in many restaurants or homes in the south. File gumbo was more of a creole dish and most of the cooking that I do was handed down from my mother and grandmother. I’m not a fan of cajun cooking because they put so many foreign ingredients in their foods. I like to know what’s swimming around in the bottom of the pot. There are many dishes that traumatized me as a kid and it took a very long time for me to eat them when I got older. One such dish was cawan or turtle. The first time I ever had turtle soup was at Delmonico’s on St. Charles Ave in NOLA. It was a company function and I decided to give it a try. Anyway, the reason the dish was so traumatic is because my family used to cook the large turtles in a large pot. Their heads would be chopped off, but they would still be alive. They would try to claw their way out of the pot. Just the sound of the claws against the side of the pot were enough to scare a young kid to death. My grandmother would comfort me in the front room until finally they were ready to be prepared for dinner. Luckily this only happened during one of the holidays, either Christmas or Thanksgiving or some other big winter family gathering. Another dish was cubean, which was a large piece of fish cooked whole which included eyes and all. The piece of fish usually measured at least 2 feet in length and was place on a platter in the center of the table. The fix was lavishly decorated with many garnishes including lemon slices. As long as I didn’t have to look at the fish looking back at me I was okay with that. During those days we sat at the children’s table so I didn’t have to look at the fish while I was eating.
I am thankful for all the wonderful people that have come into my life and those that remain to this day. I appreciate all that you have done. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Time to get back to reality.
Thanks for stopping by; keep an open mind. What is meant to be…